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Showing posts from September, 2014

Drawing Table Tuesday

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I took this Tuesday night but completely forgot until now. Or I didn't get around to it until now. Things have been weird that last few days. Staying up late to finish work doesn't work  go well if the work is very cerebral. Without much sleep you remember things out of order. I keep thinking that it's later in the week than it really is and so it feels like I'm further behind than I really am. About Drawing Table Tuesday .

Update, Faux Cover, and Rule of Two

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Update: I'm behind.  on schedule. I'm getting better at this, but I'm still not quite as fast as I should be yet. I think part of the problem is sometimes I feel I can't justify shirking responsibilities to work on this; I know that if push comes to shove, and something needs to be done, I can take off a few days to do it. Those add up pretty quickly. Lately (the last few months) , I've gotten pretty good about saying no to things and people when they ask for things that are in conflict. This is important, and this has to come first  is the mantra I've had to pretty much recite every few days to someone or myself. But it's worked. These last few months I feel like I've gotten the most work done. I've tried a few different things and I think the most important thing I've found is staggering the work and setting weekly goals. I'm mostly behind because I wasn't very accurate when estimating the time it would take me. I've got

Blurred Lines

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Those blue lines looked too perfect (perfect, and perfectly repetitious) , so I blurred them a little to soften them. It's my experience that that trick should work. If it doesn't, I can take it back. I won't know if it worked or not until it's printed. (I'll probably enlarge it and print it poster size, that's a pretty good indicator of if it's fine or needs to be reworked) And this cover isn't the real cover- and it won't be used for anything. I planned to print the book for fun, in sections, along the way as I finished it. But, no one (I can afford for fun ) can print 600ppi, or the equivalent, so I'd either have to set up an extra file for each page just for that, that's 300dppi, reworking the tones, or not and there'd be a seriously wicked moiré pattern over the entire page- to the point of the tones being virtually meaningless. So, I decided against printing it in sections, and I pretty much ended up doing this cover for fu

Subtle Artifacts

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I'm pretty steadfast when it comes to type in print  digital effects in print. What I mean is, absolutely perfect, computer generated lines in print, especially large text, word balloons- text and balloon , and border lines. They bug me when I see them, especially when the contrast against the art is too much. I'd rather see a genuine, imperfect line instead of an artificially perfect line. (Eventually, I'll get around to my manifesto where I explain why I've chosen freehand straight lines instead of using rulers. It's similar to why I can't stand vector "art"- vector art is like gradients, the only good way to use them is if you can't tell you've used them. Otherwise, you look kind of like a middle schooler who's using a computer to make art for the first time.) It's funny though, because, of course, that's an opinion that was formed from doing a lot of that stuff, vaguely not liking it, and eventually pinpointing the reasons

Cover

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The cover's finished (for a while, actually) and I took photos along the way. I'll put 'em up as I get closer to a general update of where I stand. 

Drawing Table Tuesday

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This is the first spread (two pages, one image) in the book. I was unsure which way to do this one, or really, any of them. There are five or six really different ways to approach spreads. This one's one page. The second (that's already finished sans inking)  one's two pages butted together. And that's probably how the rest in the book are gonna be. I originally planned a safer approach by putting a gutter going up the middle, but decided against it when I got around to drawing it. Print-wise, this is a little iffy. The printing's gonna have to be pretty good, because if not, the pages won't match up at all. But, I've accepted that pretty much any printer I'm going to be able to afford, won't be able to print well enough to match. (stuff like that adds character, anyway) Also, I was unsure of those pages above until it was finished and scanned with all the black. It's about as close as I can get to what I was going for without color.

Supplies

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I like It's very convenient that I know exactly what I like to use. Whenever my wife puts in an art store order, I know pretty much exactly what I'm going to tack on. Not to say I don't like to experiment with different things, but I really like using these same things (when I do real drawing) ; the more I use exactly these things, the better I'm getting with them. I like always having a surplus box or stack of things. It's more than beneficial to have the option, if something's giving you problems, to just toss it and grab a new one from the box in the corner. And for whatever reason, I feel the need to point out, that those aren't inking pens, those are bordering pens. I like a thicker line for the borders, and when I put in the last order for stuff, I didn't remember to order any. I go through those much slower. Well, I guess they're not really extra , but just waiting to be used. These are the things that arrived the other d

Poster

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I'm not sure if this is really a normal kitchen poster, but this was in our kitchen(s) for a while, so I always get a kitchen feel from it now.

Drawing Table Tuesday

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More in-depth update soonish. About Drawing Table Tuesday .

Drawing Table Tuesday

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I actually took this picture a while ago, before I threw it in the pile of drawn pages. It's significant, only because it was the last page in the book that  (...I think.)  takes place entirely in a car. That happens a lot, not the car part, but immediately throwing drawn pages onto the inking pile when I'm done with them. So, I'm making more of an effort to snap quick pictures when I feel like it. (Unintentionally nice transition to...)  Which is where this came from. I use tracing paper a lot, or I should say, a lot of tracing paper. I usually scan a lot of pages at a time, so I usually have a stack somewhere, and if they're not flat under something, they tend to curl up. The other day I realized that under the cutting mat on the light box was the perfect place to keep them before they're scanned, but it didn't occur to me until today to switch it on and see what they look like (gobbledygook, mostly) . That's 3 or 4 pages' worth of tracing pap